Michael J Penney

In December 2022, SHIFT, a life design magazine, featured Michael J. Penney and his 5P method in its latest issue and put him on the cover.

In his words

Michael shared the news on LinkedIn on December 12, 2022:

This is a huge honor… Thank you to SHIFT Advance Life Design Magazine for featuring 5P in your latest issue and allowing me to grace the cover.

Michael J. Penney, LinkedIn, December 2022

He also thanked “all of you who continue to encourage and inspire along this journey,” and pointed readers to the magazine’s website, where clicking his cover opened the digital edition. He tagged the post #LEADERS, #PENNEY, #addVALUE, #SHIFT, #SHIFTmagazine and #LifeDesign. The link in his post now leads to the magazine’s homepage, shiftlifedesign.com.

What 5P was by then

By the end of 2022, 5P had grown well beyond the book. What began as the 5 Paragraph Business Plan in April 2017 had become a management method for teams, which he taught through 5Paragraph.com. The idea is the same one he learned as a Marine infantryman: every mission is briefed in five paragraphs, covering the situation, the mission, execution, administration and logistics, and command and signal. 5P uses that format to plan and run a business.

He spent eight-plus years in the Marine Corps, with combat tours in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005-06 and 2007 and in Kajaki and Sangin, Afghanistan, in 2011, before turning to business, writing and speaking.

Why it mattered then

Most of his media before this were podcasts and online interviews. A magazine cover is a different kind of recognition. It puts the person and the idea on the front, not in the episode notes.

The hashtag he chose, #addVALUE, goes back to his 2016 TEDxRaleigh talk, “What’s Your IED: How to Add Value During Life’s Explosive Situations.” Six years later it was still the theme.

The first 5P book was a 91-page paperback released in April 2017. His TEDxRaleigh talk was delivered on March 19, 2016.

Where to find it

We have not been able to locate the December 2022 issue online. The magazine’s website now shows a later edition. If you have a link to the 2022 issue, we would like to hear from you. In the meantime, his original post is still on LinkedIn.

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.